Thanks Air-Ride

[KWIKND]

I took the wife and one kid (10 year old son) to the Goodguys event on Saturday at Route 66 in Joliet. My wife enjoys coming to the shows and is getting a keen eye for quality and style, she says I am turning her into a freak, but the kids I have to drag out of the house to shows. Then a half hour in it's "when are we leaving, how many more rows, can I get my 4th lemonade...". Me, I could drool on fenders all day. Well this was our first time at a GG and we stopped right away to see the Autocross, I could see it was the Roadster Shop's Chevelle tearing it up. Had to see some hometown muscle, also Stacy from DSE was running and had an ear to ear grin every run.
Well we continued on to see the show. All I can say is a car has to be very special or different to stand out at one of these events. It would take 100 cruise nights to see that many quality cars.
We made it thru the Pro area and headed back to the autocross.
There was about 10-12 cars running steady including Jeff Schwartz (Jeff S) "only car in the nines" GTR and Brett I think in some air ride cars and also some street rods, one of which my son affectionately started calling "donut boy" for his lack of right foot control.
My son also had that ear to ear grin and did not want to leave. This is the only time I have been the first one to say "lets go".
Thanks again,
Dan

[Steve Chryssos]

Bret and the air ride crew work very hard at convincing enthusiasts that rubber filled with air is an acceptible springing medium for performance applications. And they do it the right way by building cool cars and showing them off around the country. As a former skeptic, I can honestly say that there is no room for doubt. Anyone and everyone who has seen these cars perform is instantly impressed. Meeting and spending time with the air ride team seals the deal. These guys must be spending a ton of coin to get the word out. But they're not "BUYING" their way into anything. They're wrenching, driving, and hanging out.

After building a car with an Air Ride Street Challenge kit, I stopped caring about the minutia of suspension geometry. I look at the big picture of how suspension parts fit into a performance street car environment. And our blue Air Ride car just plain handles. It also rides nicely, drag races well (11.85 ET's), and allows us to clear speed bumps at the push of the button. I never thought I would care about "dumping the bags" when parked. But the slammed look is a lot of fun. If a geometry accurate car beats me by a tenth or a half a second--who cares. This is hot rodding--not racing.

With the blue car, I get a huge kick out of taking uninitiated passengers for test drives. We called it "Shocked", partly because the owner, Vinny Two-Phones, is an electrician. But we mostly named the car Shocked, because of the reaction from people who take their first drive in the car.

We initiated Dirk Van Zuuk yesterday by taking him for back to back runs in the DSE pace car, Air Ride car, my car and the truck arm equipped NASCAR style Fairlane. He came away enlightened. He is now officially initiated into the Twisted Idiots car club. He loves the full custom Libby Fairlane the most--even though it is probably the hardest car to drive. But everybody loves that car. It's just plain cool--a full on custom.
Next up? Damn True will be joining us in a coupla weeks for the XV Track Day. He will be lugging his skepticism all the way from California. That's perfectly understandable. Nonetheless, he will go home a little "light". Air Ride Technologies handling capability is old news now.

[Smock67]

sounds like an awesome show. where are the pics?

[silver69]

Very nice show my buddies 69 charger actually made it to winner circle. air ride event was impressive.

[HILROD]

Too bad I forgot about that this past weekend. I wanted to go!

[bret]

Joliet was a great show...we had quite a few autocross participants considering this was a first year show and a first year autocross. Stacey Tucker at Detroit Speed and Phil Gerber from the Roadster Shop and I were discussing that these type events are good for EVERYONE. The spectators get to see something besides rows of lawn chairs, the participants get to DO something besides decorate said lawn chairs, and the manufacturers who participate get to show off their products AND have some fun. For me at least, it is ALL about having fun. Yes, we exert some effort persuing this stuff, but I think it is safe to say that we all do this gig for nothing if we had to. Actually if you look back, we all did do it for nothing for quite some time. It was Kyle and Staceys Twister Camaro that started Detroit Speed and it was our Pro Street 70 Mustang that launched air ride Technologies. We were all hotrodders before we were businesspeople. I don't think it is possible for a "non-gearhead" to justify the amount of time and money that goes into the products, events and car projects that most of us do in a years time. I know my banker and accountant looked at me like I had 3 freaking heads when I told them that I was going to spend $x0,000 on some product, or some hotrod project. The official "corporate" reason is that it is a long term investment for a profitable market. The REAL reason is that its is just fun.

[KWIKND]

Here are a couple of snapshots.
It's funny how many I missed shooting Autocross with the cheap digital.
If anybody needs pictures of cones let me know. lol
I will resize more later.
Dan

[John McIntire]

man that black 71 looks great laid out!
The RS chevelle is killer too!

[bret]

An item that a few have missed at the RTH3 and the Goodguys autocrosses is that some of the fastest cars have been running automatics. Granted, the Goodguys courses are real short and conducive to running in 1st or 2nd gear, but the RTH3 course was much longer and required running in at least 2nd gear. Our 66 Chevelle has a simple Bowler 700r4. Our blue 70 Goodguys Chevelle and the orange Roadster Shop Chevelle both have a Bowler 4L80e with Twist Machines paddle shifter electronics, as does Vinnies blue 68 Camaro and of course, Steevo's green 68 Street Fighter Camaro. Having driven manuals and these new electronicly shifted automatics I am here to tell you...a paddle shifted automatic is THE way to fly. This will be as big as the Tremec craze in another year or 2. Steevo has been the original flag bearer for this trend but I am FIRMLY on board with that position now. Properly set up automatic transmissions will go from being considered a liability on the road course to being considered an "unfair advantage" quite soon.

[KWIKND]

Speaking of the paddle shifter...
Gotta love the token floor shifter in the Chevelle RS.
The Mopar was very sharp.
Dan

[Finch]

An item that a few have missed at the RTH3 and the Goodguys autocrosses is that some of the fastest cars have been running automatics. Granted, the Goodguys courses are real short and conducive to running in 1st or 2nd gear, but the RTH3 course was much longer and required running in at least 2nd gear. Our 66 Chevelle has a simple Bowler 700r4. Our blue 70 Goodguys Chevelle and the orange Roadster Shop Chevelle both have a Bowler 4L80e with Twist Machines paddle shifter electronics, as does Vinnies blue 68 Camaro and of course, Steevo's green 68 Street Fighter Camaro. Having driven manuals and these new electronicly shifted automatics I am here to tell you...a paddle shifted automatic is THE way to fly. This will be as big as the Tremec craze in another year or 2. Steevo has been the original flag bearer for this trend but I am FIRMLY on board with that position now. Properly set up automatic transmissions will go from being considered a liability on the road course to being considered an "unfair advantage" quite soon.

I have to agree with Bret on this. At RTTH3 the 6 spd in the vette was a handful to drive...I had to shift from first to second on the first long striaght away then try and brake, downshift and turn hard all at the same time. Then on the second striaght stretch I was on the rev limiter approx 200 ft before the next turn which was not enough time to up shift so more time lost. I would have loved to have a paddle shifted auto that day. Just watching how they performed has started make me think about what my first automatic project will be. There is defiantly a paddle shifter from Twist Machines in my future...just need to decide what car I will build around it.

Has anyone put one in a ford yet?

[Steve Chryssos]

There are some Fords out there. A lot of Cobra replicas and even one real Cobra based in Michigan (which blows my mind). There are a couple of high end Mustangs coming together as well.

Thanks for the kind words Bret and Brian

[Finch]

Steve,

What would be required to put something behind an 03 Mustang Cobra 4.6? I am building a 67 stang now and may consider swapping out the Tremec 6 spd since this is a full Pro-Touring car being built to run Autocross.

Regards,

[Steve Chryssos]

Get a 4R70W. A very good trans out of the box and can be built to the hilt. Call me for the rest: Powertrain Control Solutions transmission controller, MuscleDrive torque converter and Shrifter™ paddle shifter. Whatcha buildin' now?

[Steve Chryssos]

Sorry for the hijack guys.

[oestek]

Bret is doing a HELL of a lot for this sport / hobby / pastime. Beyond dragging the cars all over the place, the shows they put on draw tremendous attention at the events, and like KWIKND said, everyone likes to see cars spinning around. It's just plain fun.

Bret was nice enough to take me as a passenger for a lap in the AirRide Mustang on the Autocross at RTTHIII, and man, did that car handle! We posted times in the middle of the field without even really trying. That says alot about how the whole car is set up, and it did have R-compound tires, but with Brett and I in the car it had a load of weight, too. (mostly on my side!)

I think it's great that a manufacturer is out there beatin' up his parts in front of the world. Shows confidence in the quality, and it's also fun to see and do.

Thanks Bret!

- Kevin Oeste

[Finch]

I apologize for starting the detour we just took.

Going back to the topic of this post, I would like to say that the entire air ride crew is great. The interactions I have had with Bret, Brad, Britt & Darren in the past have all been positive. As for the product I am very impressed with the quality and craftsmanship. I took 1 ride in the Blue air ride F100 and was sold. I have since then ordered for my current build the Air Bar for the rear, ARC 4100 E2 compressor system and will be getting the DA shockwaves for the front very soon.

If you can't beat them join them...Then beat them.

[got_hp?]

Speaking of the paddle shifter...
Gotta love the token floor shifter in the Chevelle RS.

haha, thats awesome!

[jeff s]

Yea, I had a blast on Saturday too! It was a bit difficult wrestling a 1000 hp non power steering car around that little course though.
Steevo, Bret, Back in the late 70's every autocross championship I won was with an auto trans car.
My Caddy shipped out to it's new owner in NJ last week and now I need to get a real cars (67 Ford and Trans Am) done to take to these events. Thanks Brett and all the sponsor of the autocross for a great time!

[oestek]

Wow Jeff, did it suck to see the Caddy go?